The prime minister, David Cameron, said on Twitter it was the latest positive sign for British people:

"The #GDP figures are another sign our #LongTermEconomicPlan is working - more growth means more jobs, security and opportunities for people."

The chancellor, George Osborne, also took to Twitter to welcome the figures:

0.7% growth in GDP is a boost for the economic security of #hardworking people. Our long term plan is delivering a brighter economic future.

Growth is broadly based with manufacturing growing fastest. The job is not done & the biggest risk to recovery would be abandoning the plan.

Joe Grice, chief economist at the ONS, put the numbers in perspective, pointing out that the economy is still smaller than it was before the crisis:

We have now seen four successive quarters of significant growth and the economy does seem to be improving more consistently. Today's estimate suggests over four-fifths of the fall in GDP during the recession has been recovered, although it still remains 1.3% below the pre-recession peak.

Frances O'Grady, general secretary of the Trade Union Congress, said that while growth was welcome, the UK was having the "wrong kind" of recovery:

Any return to growth is welcome, but this is the wrong kind of recovery and is two years late. The recovery is yet to reach whole swaths of the country or feed into people's pay packets. This must change if the benefits of recovery are to be felt by both businesses and workers.

Unless the short-term boost provided by house prices and consumer debt is transformed into investment, rebalancing and higher living standards, the danger is that it will prove unsustainable.

John Longworth, director general of the British Chambers of Commerce, agreed that there was work ahead to make this a sustainable recovery:

It is of course heartening that Britain is now amongst the fastest-growing advanced economies. But more must be done to shore up the foundations of this recovery if it is to be a lasting one. Unless we do much better on the three 'T's - training, transport infrastructure and trade support - our aspirations for investment at home and success around the globe cannot be achieved.

We mustn't pat ourselves on the back for a recovery that is merely good, when what we need is a recovery that is truly great.

Alan Clarke, fixed income strategist at Scotiabank, said fourth-quarter growth was good but not great:

While that is a good outcome, it's not great - the survey based indicators suggest that we should have seen north of 1% quarter on quarter and labour data flying. Sadly disappointments in the construction data (which looks likely to be genuine due to a shortage of bricks) and only a pedestrian pace of services output held back Q4.

The consensus outlook for 2014 as a whole is for 2.5% year-on-year growth. That implies that the quarter-on-quarter growth rate continues to soften slightly to just below 0.4% quarter-on-quarter by the end of the year.

John Cridland, director-general of business group the CBI, said the outlook for 2014 was strong:

The economy is growing and the recovery gathering momentum. This is good news, and we're seeing improvement across many different sectors. This is a strong platform for an even better year in 2014, and we expect the economy to continue to strengthen.

Martin Beck, UK economist at Capital Economics, agreed that quarterly growth of 0.7% was disappointing compared with stronger business surveys in recent weeks:

The 0.7% rise in UK GDP in Q4 is a touch disappointing given the recent strength of the business surveys. But it still takes full-year growth in 2013 to 1.9%, the best performance since 2007 and possibly the strongest growth in the G7.

Of course, output remains below its pre-crisis peak (by 1.3%). And, in levels terms, the UK's economy's performance remains pretty insipid compared with other major economies. Meanwhile, Q4's number was below the 0.9% expected by the MPC, although this may help to quell murmurs of some support among Committee members for an interest rate rise sooner rather than later.

Nancy Curtin, chief investment officer at Close Brothers Asset Management, said there was every reason to believe recovery was here to stay:

Make no mistake, the recovery of the UK economy is not a flash in the pan. We are seeing renewed consumer spending, which should trigger a revival in investment spend. And combined with sustained low rates on the horizon, we are seeing a benign growth and liquidity outlook for investors.

With annual GDP growth now outstripping inflation, could 2014 be the year we witness a disinflationary boom, where growth is actually higher than inflation for the first time in years. Such an outcome would make up much of the ground lost to stagflation of the recent past.

We expect the economy to expand by 2.7% in 2014 with quarter-on-quarter growth centred around 0.6-0.7% through the year.

While growth has become more broadly based on the output side of the economy (despite construction's relapse in the fourth quarter), there is concern that UK growth in 2013 was too dependent on consumer spending which is being partly fuelled by increased borrowing.

However, it is important that the UK has finally sustained extended decent growth of any sort following its prolonged struggle to recover from the deep 2008/9 recession. This will hopefully wider recovery to now develop.